Blog #94

Turns out this won't be my first blog of '07. There's still 110 minutes until midnight. Today my family and I went shopping in Richmond, and after we returned home I watched the Time Square New Year's Celebrations and saw hundreds of thousands of people celebrating the coming of the new year three hours before ours. My New Year's resolution? well I still have 110 minutes to figure it out.

Blog #93

Today I started reading another classic (my goal for winter break is to read at least 3 classics) by Charles Dickens called Hard Times. This is one of his least-read books, yet it is just as entertaining as his other more well-known works. I am now at the 7th chapter.
I also started working on my science fair. Although it is not due until two months later, I realized that the winter break is really the only time I have to work on them because homework and more projects are bound to come when school resumes. I am sure I will feel the benefits of my planning early on the week before the due date, when my other friends will be cramming until late after midnight. My Internet research session was very productive, and I hope to get a trip to VPL Central Branch sometime before the end of the holidays to get more research done.

Blog #92

Today I saw the news coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution on CNN. The actual news came about 20 minutes after he was actually executed. They interviewed a lot of people to get their opinions on it. I personally think that executing Saddam Hussein will not facilitate the US's progress to "liberate" Iraq. In fact, his execution will bring about a spike in violence in Iraq, which the last thing the Marines would want first thing in the New Year.

Blog #90

Today I did some more work in the morning, and started organizing my biology glossary. I found more podcasts today too. I found the Discovery Channel podcasts extremely interesting because they actually re-broadcast parts of their shows.
Then in the afternoon I helped a family friend with her IELTS stuff. Then we ate dinner and now I'm gunbounding.

Blog #88

I was sick during Christmas, so the celebrations have been put on hold. I finished reading the Lord of the Flies in 2 days, and found the story haunting and distracted me from the symptoms of my cold. I also started reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was also a very attention-capturing book, and I plan on finishing it tomorrow. I also made a really interesting discovery today: the Podcast section in the iTunes music store is a treasure chest. The podcasts are in either audio or video format, and cover a wide range of topic from science, politics, and music to comedy, news, and personal podcasts. I found many informative video podcasts from National Geographic and NOVA and audio emissions from Voice of America and CBC. I could not believe that all these resources are free and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. I must take advantage of all this.

Blog #87

Today was really fun. We watched a movie in band, had a huge junk food party in french, watched CSI in science, and we read a christmas story in English.
Then I went to my elementary school for a grad buffet. I had an awesome time meeting the others whom i haven't seen in a while. The food was great and the conversations we had were very interesting.

Blog #86

Today we had a test in the morning in SS. It was really easy, and I didn't even require a cheat sheet, which Mr. Sale offered us. I think I aced the test, because I answered every question fully and exhaustive (and probably even redundantly but that's okay). My notes really helped me a lot because there wasn't a single question that my notes did not cover. Then we watched the rest of the 2001 A Space Odyssey movie. I thought it was quite intriguing at the end, and the director obviously used a lot of metaphors. Then we watched the hilarious Zoolander movie. It even has its own scene dedicated to 2001 A Space Odyssey where two guys act as monkeys and use bones to smash up a computer (pretty wild huh?)
Today was really fun.

Blog #85

Today we had band practice at lunch in preparation for the christmas concert tomorrow, then we had another silent, tedious work period in Science in which we prepared for the test next class. I hope that we are actually going to learn something after the test is over, because we did not do a single worthwhile thing since two classes ago.
After school today, I helped out a bit in decorating the classroom. My job was to fill up all those balloons. I look forward to the party tomorrow.

Blog #84

Today I finished up my tedious homework from Science. We are supposed to make a cheat sheet by hand, which is supposed to contain all the info from all the four major body systems that we studied. Personally, I think it is a huge waste of time. First of all, I understand that Ms. Kot is making us memorize the concepts more fully by handwriting all the concepts down. But I think otherwise. This assignment forces us to focus on how to FIT all those info on a limited space. In fact, when doing the assignment, I did not recall actually trying to memorize the concepts. I know why, because I already fully UNDERSTAND the concepts, and re-MEMORIZING them just doesn't make sense to me. Ms. Kot should allow computer technology in this assignment, because not all of us can scribble in a microscopic print, and none of us actually benefit from this exercise.

Blog #83

Awesome! My hockey team is now 1st in the league!! We were unbeaten in 11 games, and we're on a roll. We just got to 1st place after beating the previous best team.
Today, my dissection club meeting (yea, i forgot to mention I am part of the dissection club. I have to wake up really early on Fridays to dissect various specimens ranging from squids to sharks) consisted of dissecting a freshwater fish (perch). Then we had the dissection club party and awards right before the bell. I won the best individual award and our group got the best group performance. I won an animal-shaped felt pen while my group members got to choose some random toys. I added the felt pen to my secret santa gift box, since I had no use for it and I thought my secret santa buddy might like it very much.
I liked the film during AS. There are finally some plot twists and turns, although the movements are still excruciatingly slow. I am now dying to see the rest of the movie (and trying hard not to look up spoilers on Wikipedia)

Blog #82

I only got 7As (excluding the Health and Career Ed, which is a basically a freebie) this term. My low marks in group project in SS really compromised my mark. Those are things that I couldn't control, and I'm really disappointed that it was because of those uncontrollable factors that I did not get an A, which really makes you feel frustrated. As always (in a group situation), I assumed the role of a leader and started to prompt the members in my group to work constructive and productively. They chose not to comply, and as a group we got this really really bad mark. I guess I should just take this as a lesson and choose more cooperative and hard-working group members next time. This is not a great way to ruin my straight-A streak at all. If I had gotten a B in other subjects, that would have been understandable because my timetable is very rigorous and has a lot of higher-grade courses. But a B in SS is completely avoidable. As the saying goes, life is unfair, and you just have to live with it.

Blog #81

Today we watched an assortment of movie trailers in SS. It was actually really fun to see the best parts of every good movie that we have suggested.
We watched 2001 A Space Odyssey in AS. I thought the movie was really well made, because it obviously is going to culminate (it hasn't yet). The huge shift in time from the primitive ape-like humans to the technologically advanced, futuristic humans really showed how huge a step the ape took when he used a bone as a weapon and tool, which led to the existence of these advanced spacecraft. However, I found the slow movements of the spacecraft extremely annoying and hard to tolerate. I think they're just showing off the 1960s digital renderings (which are pretty good for that time period). The filming technique was really really good. The camera seemed to defy gravity. It's almost magical how the person walks in a loop with constant gravity. I look forward to finishing the movie.
In the afternoon, nothing happened that's worth talking about.

Blog #80

Today's band lesson consisted of going through the pieces we are going play at the christmas concert. I am becoming more and more adept at drums now, and today I did not make a single mistake on my part.
Then we had a test in French. I found the test easier than I expected, and I used common sense to answer the questions (just to show how easy they were).
We learned about how all the body systems work together in Science, and here's my opinion of the "educational" video we watched. First of all, it was very informative, but it failed to connect the information in anyway to have them make sense. It was more like a random collage of bits of information. Also, the questions Ms. Kot gave us in accordance with the video was lacking because it did not cover many of the important details of the video. In fact, the worksheet had very little to do with the video. Most of the information on the sheet was very basic, and they did not serve as a review.
Finally, in English, we reviewed the grammar sheet that we did last time. The answers were very obvious as well. Towards the end of the class, some individuals in the class were behaving rudely, and Ms Densford made us write this paragraphe that was supposed to make us more mature.

Blog #79

Today I kind of expected a pop quiz from Mr. Sale on the six wives of Henry VIII, and I scored wonderfully perfectly. We then learned about the rest of the reign of the Tudor Monarchs. Personally, I think that the reign of the Tudor monarchs was very interesting and sad in many occasions as well.
then, in AS we had a disastrous meeting in AS which involved a lot of pointless shouting. At the end no actual tangible product came out. We did not decide on a movie, and followed with the Gr. 8 choice. Other than that, nothing got done.
We talked about optimizing profits and linear programming in math. Obviously, it's one of Mr. nakamoto's favorite subjects, and we learned it too with great interest because this is the first thing we learned in math that has any value in real life application.

Blog #78

Today I couldn't go to my hockey practice in the morning because I had an upset stomach, and went promptly back to sleep at 6:00AM. I got up again at 10 AM and started to practice piano for an hour for my lesson at noon. My piano teacher turned out to have a really bad cough and was quite sick.
I finished all my homework and prepared for tomorrow, which is supposed to be very interesting because we are starting new stuff in both SS and AS.

Blog #76

Today, we had our field trip to BodyWorlds 3 in Science world. It wasn't as exciting as I expected, but we still got to see some awesome real human specimens preserved throught the process of plastination. Plastination is process in which they inject a slow-setting mould that slowly turns the body plastic and preserves it in a one year process. I bought a book that has everything in display in full colour. It was a great book.
In the afternoon we played around with our calculators more in math and did square dancing in PE.

Blog #76

Today we had Feliz Navidad as our new band piece. It is the spanish version of Merry Christmas, and my drums part rocked. The piece was in Latin Rock style, and the tempo was extremely fast and vivacious.
Then we got to work in French on our two paragraphs regarding the fashion presentation we presented last class. I used perfect and complex grammar and vocab in my two paragraphes, and I'm sure that will take my mark to a completely different dimension.
In the afternoon, we took the rest of the notes in science and started working on a children's book that will summarize our chapter. We have to use simple language to supposedly explain a very erudite scientific topic. That's one of the most difficult things in the world for me.
Finally, we went to this nutrition presentation in the auditorium. The students displayed extreme stupidity as they asked unrelated questions. I think the presentator failed to explain the new food program in our caf, and I bet the presentator was also quite disappointed because she brought all these props and demonstration that seemed to have very little effect on the majority. In one word, I'd describe this session as a fiasco.

Blog #75

Today we learned about the six wives of Henry VIII in SS. It seems extremely bizarre that such a well-known king should have such a life with six queens, two of whom he executed.
Then we watched an informative video clip about the most important discoveries in astronomy. I had no light bulb moments, probably because I have watched tons of hours of educational and scientific videos like this before. But it was cool to review all of them again, while the video link the importances of the discoveries together.
In Math, we had this sub who didn't know what he was teaching. I corrected him in two major errors on the overhead... I guess he just didn't have coffee in the morning.
Finally, we did square dancing in PE. It was really fun, and since we've done it in grade 8, we loved watching the grade 8s this year screw up.

Blog #74

Today's highlight was our french fashion presentations. I wore part of my hockey gear to class and was dressed as a hockey player. The rest of the groups also had very interesting outfits. The presentations were a huge success.
In English, we learned 31 rules of thumb regarding grammar. It was very interesting because the rules themselves contained the kind of error it told us not to make and we had to correct them.

Blog #72

Today, I had an extremely early practice at 6AM in the morning. It is at least better than a monday morning practice at the same time. We worked on some drills that will hopefully improve our skills and get us more wins and extend our unbeaten streak.
Then, I finished up some hw that's due tomorrow, and hastily memorized my script for tomorrow's french fashion presentation.

Blog #71

Today, we learned more about the enlightenment in SS. We were required to take notes on the book, which we could have done for hw. I think we should do something else in class rather than simple manual and tedious work that can clearly be saved until after class.
In my AS presentation, I was interrupted so many times by George and Jason having nice, loud and irrelevant chats, but otherwise I think I got my topic across to the class quite well.
Mr. Nakamoto actually taught us something today, and, you guessed it. It's not grade 11 math. He went rambling about the determinants of a matrix and how to solve them. It was really interesting though. I actually learned how to obtain the determinant of a matrix without the help of a calculator. i fail to see its application, though.
Finally, we played basketball in PE. Nothing interesting.